In a recent edition of Business Traveller – in Trave Tales – the country of Colombia was spelled Columbia!

As a frequent traveller to Colombia it is amazing to me that a prestigious travel magazine could make this mistake. Local Colombians get very annoyed about this and many airports sell, mugs, T Shirts, Baseball hats with the wording “Its Colombia not Columbia”

In a recent edition of Business Traveller – in Trave Tales – the country of Colombia was spelled Columbia!
As a frequent traveller to Colombia it is amazing to me that a prestigious travel magazine could make this mistake. Local Colombians get very annoyed about this and many airports sell, mugs, T Shirts, Baseball hats with the wording “Its Colombia not Columbia”

Who cares? I don’t.

Colombians should be grateful that BT took the time to showcase their country.

I’d be more worried about the journalist getting Colombia mixed up with say Chile, or Mexico. If every Stephen got annoyed when their name was spelled Steven, we would have a world full of very angry Stephen’s.

Penfold69 (is that correct) my brother, Stephen, twitched when it was spelt wrong…now my son in law notices when it is incorrectly spelt stefan!!!…. what fun for those of us that enjoy causing minor propblems…

Penfold69 (is that correct) my brother, Stephen, twitched when it was spelt wrong…now my son in law notices when it is incorrectly spelt stefan!!!…. what fun for those of us that enjoy causing minor propblems…

I am a Stephen, dont mind being shortened to Steve, but hate Steven or Stevan She who must be obeyed calls me Stefan when i am in the dog house

It is a responsibility for everyone to try their best to spell proper nouns correctly, so agree with OP.
If in the workplace someone call the posters – who say don’t care – with twisted names; how it will be felt?
I am amazed to see the enthusiasm of some posters regarding compulsion to comment on almost every post.

Thank you. It’s a responsibility we are aware of and take seriously. That’s why we employ sub-editors.

The great thing about the forum is people enjoy having fun while helping one another out with information about business travel or just chatting. Sometimes they even arrange to meet up (a recent event was in Bangkok).

It’s quite ironic you post about people posting, but we’re glad to have everyone here.

If the characters of the language are the same, why not be respectful and use its proper given name.
If anybody out there knows a good reason not to call place names by their given name, I’d genuinely be interested.

It might put an end to the PSG quandary, basically football commenters referring to the team as Pareee San German, a team based in Paris!!

Indeed LP, and as someone who’s been double whammied, being called both English and American, I’m very conscious of guessing New Zealand rather than Australian when faced with an antipodean accent/dialect quandary.

What I find indefensible is when I mention that I’m originally from Vancouver, BC , I get the daft question, “ Where in America is that?. ”

And worse, it’s not just geographically ignorant people on this side of the pond that pose the question, many a time in my travels in the US have I been asked the same question. .

As for the Scotland v England thing, a reference to Brave, Shrek or Braveheart seems to do the trick pinpointing the difference.

It is a responsibility for everyone to try their best to spell proper nouns correctly, so agree with OP. If in the workplace someone call the posters – who say don’t care – with twisted names; how it will be felt? I am amazed to see the enthusiasm of some posters regarding compulsion to comment on almost every post.

Let’s responsibly quote some facts, then…..

– The FCO advises against all travel to the ports of Buenaventura in the department of Valle de Cauca and the port of Tumaco in the department of Nariño
– FCO advises to avoid all but essntial travel in about 50% of Colombia
– There is a risk of Dengue (break bone) fever infection
– There is a moderate risk of Zika infection
– The Colombian Government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) announced a temporary ceasefire from 1 October 2017 to 9 January 2018 – so, from tomorrow the truce is ended and violence may reoccur